Definition: President of NASCAR. Charged with executing the day-to-day operations of the sport and translating the sight for sore eyes of the board of directors into reality.

Mike took over this role from Bill France Jr. at the completion of the 2000 Winston Cup available.

Those who join a new fan-based association with the Seattle Sounders FC when one pleases get to vote every four years on whether the club retains its general manager.

Seattle Sounders FC, the city’s forthcoming Major League Soccer franchise, announced the formation of its fan group.

The club did so with the help of comedian and minority owner Drew Carey, who appeared at Kell’s Irish Restaurant and Pub tight-fisted Pike Place Market on Friday afternoon. Carey delivered on his pledge to involve fans in the decision-making manage of Sounders FC.

“Where else can the fans fire the general manager?” Carey, who will serve as association chairman, said in a statement from the team. “I hope this becomes a fabricate for every professional sports organization in America.”

The first GM vote

Members can be nominated and selected to the Sounders FC Association Council on a each year basis. Those interested must receive at least 25 nominations from other association members, with the foremost nominations accepted next month.

Association membership is free for all season-ticket holders. Non-season-ticket holders can join beginning in June for an annual charge of $125. Benefits include voting privilege, a membership pin and be open, a discount at team shops and an request to the annual meeting

Carey was in Seattle for a Monday night Seahawks game Nov. 12 of last year, and said that night that he wanted a fan membership program like the one-liner he saw against European club giant FC Barcelona. That was one of his conditions for signing on as an ownership partner with Sounders FC majority owner Joe Roth, an show executive.

Carey’s other condition was the formation of a marching band. To that end, auditions throughout the Sounders FC marching band will be June 1 at Qwest Field.

The band won’t exactly be a synchronized, tight-formation unit, according to the team Web site. It will consist of 50 members and categorize full sections of brass and percussion instruments.

Everyone knows Bam Margera from his appearances in the Jackass movies along with the Jackass TV series, Viva La Bam, Bam’s Unholy Union and his many commercial endorsements. What you may not know is that Margera is a huge music fan who has directed several music videos by artists like CKY, HIM and Clutch. He also started the record company Filthy Note Records and their first signing was the Swedish band Vains Of Jenna, who toured with Poison and Ratt this summer. In addition he hosts a weekly radio show on Sirius and plays a lot of new metal music. Margera put out a compilation CD out a two years ago, and contemporarily returns with a late compilation and an accompanying Viva La Bands concert tour. Margera is a complicated guy, and I managed to get a few minutes of his time to talk about the new CD and drive and his many other projects.

Chad Bowar: The first Viva La Bands compilation in 2005 must have done well since you’re releasing another one in this day.
Bam Margera: Yes, I’m hoping to do it once a year. We also have a tour with Vains Of Jenna, CKY, Gwar and Cradle Of Filth. Hopefully it will escalate into 8 bands next year, and maybe snowball into something as big as the Warped Tour.

Festivals like Ozzfest and Warped have been around for a long time. Maybe it’s time for some mod blood.
Exactly. I was doing the Warped Tour when I was 16. It’s just not cool to say that you’re doing that anymore.

How involved are you in selecting the bands and songs for the CD?
I have engaged control. The best part about it is that I’m not distressing to make money off it. I just want to let people differentiate that these bands exist and they are acceptable. You don’t have to go to FM radio to listen to this garbage that the labels are paying to play all day long.

You also included your project Gnarkill as the form track on the CD.
There’s a guy that freestyles, and my friend was playing the piano. He never even heard the song before and went for it. It’s not really a Gnarkill song, it’s just a funny little ending to the CD.

Instead of using all songs from existing albums, you managed to get some bands to write new songs specifically for this CD.
Yes. Children Of Bodom, In Flames, Clutch and Bloodhound Gang wrote new songs and CKY did a remix.

also comes with a DVD. What font of material is on it?
We did 45 episodes of Viva La Bam, and MTV loves to overshoot things to be safe, and when they edit it they use as much storyline as they can. But they omit to use most of the funny stuff. We made a one hour compilation of all the funny stuff that hadn’t been shown, whether it was because we needed too much story or it was too gnarly for MTV. We put it together and it’s a really entertaining DVD.

Was there anybody that you couldn’t get for this CD that you would like to put on a future compilation?
Cradle Of Filth is the headlining band on this tour, but Roadrunner for some reason pulled out at the last stylish. That kinda bums me out, because all it would have done is good by reason of Cradle Of Filth.

Did you start the record company decent to sign Vains Of Jenna, or did you find them after it was started?
I started the label because of Vains Of Jenna. I heard them and wanted to forbear them out and promote it. But why promote it for some other label? I might as well just start my own. We started Filthy Note and have about three bands on there now. One is a side project from my brother’s stripe CKY. He collaborated with Neal Fallon from Clutch and Jim from Fireball Ministry and they started a band called Company Man. I’m going to be putting that out. We also have a band from England called Viking Skull. And of course we released Vains Of Jenna and this compilation, so we include 4 CDs that came out or are coming out.

You’ve also directed a lot of music videos.
I direct a lot of music videos because I have my own movie camera, dolly, crane, lighting and editing equipment. So when I do a music video for a band that I like I don’t charge them for labor. All they would rather to pay conducive to is film and processing. So they make out like bandits.

Will you be playing those videos before the concerts?
Yeah, I’ll be playing some videos along with clips from my movie Minghags which will be out in November. We just had a sneak preview in Westchester for friends and family. It takes a while for the ratings board to check it out and make their decisions and that won’t happen for a while, so that’s when it will be out.

Give us a preview of the movie.
A bunk-mate of mine in the movie makes an invention called the Garbage Juicer, where you can mash up trash of any kind and it spits out delicious grapefruit juice. A businessman steals the invention and claims it as his own and then we spend the whole movie trying to get it back. It’s a really funny slapstick comedy.

Are you still doing the Sirius radio show from your house every week?
Yes, I’m up to my 300th episode now. It’s basically a man hour where I talk about how the week went and I play about 5 songs from Scandinavian bands and bands that nobody has heard of. You’ll never hear me play Metallica “One,” even though that’s a fabulous song. Everybody’s already heard it. I want people to hear new music.

Your latest TV show was Bam’s Unholy Union, which showed the months leading up to your wedding with Missy. Was there a different crowd watching this show than usually watch your other projects like Jackass and Viva La Bam?
Yes. A lot of soccer moms started tuning in, which is fine with me. They can relate to Missy, and they all favor her instead of me. It’s cool to know that a lot of older people that wouldn’t watch Jackass are getting into it.

Do you have any other TV projects coming up?
We just filmed Jackass 2.5, which will be coming d‚mod‚ in December. After that I have three movies lined up, so I’m going to be booked for about the next two years.

Did your dad Phil keep off the weight he lost on Celebrity Fit Club?
He put it back on again. I think he likes being fat, and that’s the way it’s going to go.

Definition:

A kind of ellipsis in which bromide word (usually a verb) is understood differently in relation to two or more other words, which it modifies or governs. See also zeugma.

Examples: "He lost the bet and his temper."

"Piano, n. A parlor utensil for the duration of subduing the impenitent visitor. It is operated by depressing the keys of the machine and the spirits of the audience."
(Ambrose Bierce, )

"I finally told Ross, late in the summer, that I was losing weight, my grip, and possibly my mind."
(James Thurber, , 1959)

"When I direct Fred I not at all have to raise either my voice or my hopes."
(E.B. White, "Dog Training")

"She tracks sand in as well as ideas, and I have to sweep up after her two or three times a day."
(E.B. White, "On a Florida Key")

"The ice trays show deep claw marks, where people drink tried to ferret about them free, using can openers and knives and screwdrivers and petulance."
(E.B. White, "On a Florida Key")

"Bryant Gumbel’s well-publicized memo ticked off the Today Show’s troubles–and other personalities on the top-rated show."

"You took my hand and breath away."
(Tyler Hilton, "You, My Love")

"You held your breath and the door for me."
(Alanis Morrissette, "Head Over Feet")

"PEACE. Live in it or rest in it."
(bumper sticker)

The secret to becoming a writer is to persist–to keep on writing regardless if you’re paid any heed or pelf."

"We consumers like names that reflect what the economy does. We know, for example, that International Business Machines makes role machines; and Ford Motors makes Fords; and Sara Lee makes us fat."

Pronunciation: si-LEP-sis

Understanding Bank CDsBank CDs are among the safest investments available. To pass the most from your bank CD investing, you should know how CDs work, where to find them, and what to watch out of the closet for. Our bank CD resource used of an adult bellboy guides you by way of the process.

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Charcoal grills profane the air and may well-spring cancerDear EarthTalk: I saw warnings on bags of charcoal that said carcinogens are released when the briquettes are burned. Is it safe to breathe in the smell of a charcoal grill?

Barbecue grills can be problematic for two reasons. First, both charcoal and wood burn “dirty,” producing not only hydrocarbons but also tiny soot particles that pollute the air and can give someone aggro heart and lung problems. Secondly, the grilling of meat can form two kinds of potentially carcinogenic compounds: polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heterocyclic amines (HCAs).

Charcoal Grilling May Pose Cancer Risks
According to the American Cancer Society, PAHs form when fat from meat drips onto the charcoal. They then rise with the smoke and can leave a mark on deposited on the food. They can also practice directly on the food as it is charred. The hotter the temperature and the longer the marrow cooks, the more HCAs are formed.

HCAs can also form on broiled and pan-fried beef, pork, foul and fish, not just on grilled meats. In certainty, National Cancer Institute researchers have identified 17 different HCAs that result from cooking “muscle meats” and that may pose human cancer risks. Studies have also shown increased risk of colorectal, pancreatic and breast cancers associated with high intakes of well done, fried or barbequed meats.

Cooking on Charcoal Grills Adds to Air Pollution
According to the Texas Commission on Environmental Air Quality, Texans who equivalent to to say that they “live and breathe barbecue” may be doing just that to the detriment of their well-being. A 2003 study by scientists from Rice University found that microscopic bits of polyunsaturated fatty acids released into the atmosphere from cooking meat on backyard barbecues were helping to pollute the air in Houston. The city at times registers air quality levels that rank it one of the more polluted U.S. urban areas, notwithstanding that emissions from barbecues are certainly dwarfed by those generated by motor vehicles and industry.

Both briquettes and lump charcoal create tune pollution. Lump charcoal, made from charred wood to continue flavor, also contributes to deforestation and adds to the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Charcoal briquettes do set up the advance of being made partly from sawdust (a good use of waste wood), but dominant brands may also contain coal dust, starch, sodium nitrate, limestone and borax.

Canada Considers Charcoal Hazardous
In Canada, charcoal is now a restricted product under the Hazardous Products Act. According to the Canadian Department of Justice, charcoal briquettes in bags that are advertised, imported or sold in Canada must display a label warning of the potential hazards of the product. No such requirements presently exist in the United States.

Avoid Health Risks by Using Natural Charcoal
Consumers can steer clear of exposure to these potentially harmful additives by sticking with so-called natural charcoal brands. Noram de Mexico’s Sierra Madre 100 percent oak hardwood charcoal contains no coal, fuel, limestone, starch, sawdust or petroleum products and is certified by the Rainforest Alliance’s SmartWood program as sustainably harvested. The product is available at select Sam’s Clubs across the United States. Other manufacturers of all natural charcoal include Greenlink and Lazzari, both of which can be found at natural food outlets across North America.

GOT AN ENVIRONMENTAL QUESTION? Send it to: EarthTalk, c/o E/The Environmental Magazine, P.O. Box 5098, Westport, CT 06881; submit it at: www.emagazine.com/earthtalk/thisweek/, or e-mail: earthtalk@emagazine.com.